INTEODUCTION 



The cultivation of plants at the present day has been brought almost 

 to the highest point of perfection. Far greater attention is now given 

 to the problem as to how the finest Flovyers, Fruits, and Vegetables can 

 be produced in the best way at the least cost than at any previous period 

 in our history. The whole country is alive to the importance and 

 necessity of making the land produce as much as possible in the best 

 possible way. County Councils are lavishing money to have gardening 

 taught either in schoolrooms or in gardens, but as yet have not decided 

 upon any definite plan whereby those taught are likely to obtain any 

 or much benefit from what they learn. And yet, it is a curious fact 

 that, although we know a good deal more about plants now than our 

 ancestors did, and though thousands of plants, natives of all parts of 

 the world, are grown in our gardens that were quite unknown to 

 them, still there has been practically but little change in the principal 

 methods of cultivation. The importance of tilling and manuring the 

 soil and bringing it into a state of fertility has been recognised from 

 the earliest ages, while little or nothing was known of its nature and 

 composition, or the chemical changes that take place in it, or that are 

 produced by rain, heat and cold, &c. The proper times for Digging, 

 Planting, Sowing seeds, and various other operations were also well 

 known, and modern gardeners still continue to work on the same old 

 lines. The ancients were also acquainted with the arts of Budding, 

 Grafting, Layering, Pruning, Thinning Out, Transplanting &c., and 

 all these operations were alluded to as commonplaces by the poet 

 Virgil before the Christian Era in his well-known Bucolics. It thus 

 appears that, notwithstanding the march of time, the principles of 

 cultivation remain the same in all ages, and gardeners have only to 



c2 



